Engineering Advantage
“Rarely do you see such a well positioned and aligned business.” Engineering group IMI is doing rather well. It has just posted pre-tax profits of £301.4 million, on revenues of…
All these articles illustrate why you need to stay different. Difference, more than anything else, drives value and allows you to achieve higher returns on capital in your business. Most businesses fail to give Difference enough attention, not just when starting out, but over time as competitive pressures increase and things change around them.
Why Shop at Tesco?
“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like Tesco.” I sometimes shop for food at Tesco, sometimes I go to Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer or even, on occasion,…
Where are the Benefits?
The days of easy money for CCP Group, and its partner banks, are over. The Financial Services Authority seems to be getting ready to impose some of its stiffest penalties…
A Big Pile Of Chocolate
Thorntons has been eclipsed on the high street by a company more in tune with the zeitgeist. All of sudden Thorntons, the once dominant high-street chocolate retailer, is in demand,…
The Bristol Pound
Could the reintroduction of local currency make us think more deeply about the value of money? In May, a Bristol credit union will issue its own bank notes, backed…
Being NABbed
Lack of obvious competition is a sign of a stagnant and underperforming industry. So last century! The word ‘nab’, according to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, means “to seize…
Converging on Sony
Just what are the consumer benefits of having one supplier rather than many? Sony’s chairman and CEO, Howard Stringer, has announced that after 7 years, or so, at the top…
Conquistador Banking
Colonialism isn’t as easy as it once was, but its legacy lingers. I’m a sucker for good marketing and I quite like the simplicity and difference of Santander’s 1 2…
I Met a Man at a Crossroads………
Whatever happened to Carrefour’s positive outlook? I recently met a man at a crossroads. “Where are you going?” I said. The man looked rather embarrassed and after quite a while…
Founders Need To Know When To Go
Why “doing more marketing” won’t help at Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of the Blackberry smartphone. I have had a Blackberry for many years now. I’m used to it…